Super teams in the NBA are all the rage these days, but they’re not for everyone. At least, they’re not for everyone who is excluded from being a part of a super team, perhaps. Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers may be one of them.
In an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio, Lillard suggested he has too much pride to take a part in any super team collaboration.
“If somebody wants to go join people and do that… then, you know, it’s not against the rules. They can do it,” Lillard said. “There’s just more pressure to win when you do it. Some people say ‘aw, they just joining up, they had to do this to win it,’ but we play the game to win it. So when people do it, that’s they decision.”
The funny thing is, hasn’t it always sort of been that way once free agency entered the sports world? There are two goals in professional sports; win a championship and getting paid. And not necessarily in that order. But things seemed to change when LeBron James and Chris Bosh opted to team up with Dwayne Wade in Miami years ago. Now, super teams are a growing trend, as seen in Golden State with the latest acquisition of Kevin Durant, who himself was once outspoken about super teams.
Lillard, for now, says it is not for him.
“I wouldn’t do it. That’s just not who I am,” Lillard said in his interview. “I might have too much pride for that, or be too much of a competitor where I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It also makes it more fun. You know, you get to take a monster down, and that’s always fun.”
He says that now, but if the opportunity to join a potential super team in the future comes along, nobody should be mad at him for accepting the offer.
